“Serving the Pentagon”, an investigation produced by NBC News, ICIJ, ARIJ, and the Washington Post has won the Deadline Club SPJ Award for best business investigative reporting.

In their comments the judges noted that the reporters who worked on the story “painstakingly documented labor abuses on U.S. military bases abroad, overcoming a series of reporting obstacles to shed an important light on a little-known and shocking practice that others had turned a blind eye to.”

“Their determination to tell the story in the face of significant hurdles and the details of the abuses the workers endured, which one source called “modern day slavery,” sets this entry apart from the many fine contestants in this category.” they added.

The investigation was a finalist in a list that included: “Going for Broke” by Reuters, and “Uncontrolled Substances” by the Wall Street Journal.

The Deadline Club announced the winners at an annual awards dinner held at the Harvard Club in New York City.